The expansion of the initiative is significant, as one in four people over 60 years attribute their indebtedness to healthcare costs, and only 18.2% have health insurance coverage. However, cost of healthcare is just one of the many factors impacting senior citizens’ healthcare-seeking behaviour and outcomes. For the 70% of the elderly who live in rural parts of India, access to healthcare is often limited by factors like inadequate infrastructure, human resource shortages, transport and connectivity issues, and more.

Accessibility

The benefits of digital solutions for the elderly became particularly evident during the Covid-19 pandemic when telemedicine efforts such as e-Sanjeevani enabled patients to seek healthcare remotely. A notable example is ‘e-Sanjeevani’, India’s National Telemedicine Service, which aims to deliver healthcare directly to citizens through the nearest sub-health centres, called Ayushman Arogya Mandirs.

Despite the limitations of e-Sanjeevani, it was reported in 2023, that nearly 12% of its beneficiaries were senior citizens. According to the Longitudinal Ageing Study in India, more than 11% of the elderly have some kind of physical impairment, leading to dependency on family members and caregivers. By improving the adoption of telemedicine, care can be brought closer to their homes. It has also been revealed that e-Sanjeevani services will be available via landlines and feature phones in the next 15-18 months. Greater access can also help address often unmet needs such as vision and hearing impairments.

Affordability

Telemedicine and virtual consultation tools have the potential to significantly lower healthcare costs by saving time and reducing the need for travel, particularly beneficial for elderly patients. Many seniors with non-communicable diseases require regular follow-ups and long-term care but may find it inconvenient to visit a healthcare facility for minor concerns.

Virtual consultations make it easier to address healthcare needs from home and serve as a valuable tool for offering preventive care advice, which is crucial for the early detection of chronic diseases. Additionally, electronic health records enable efficient care coordination, reducing duplicate tests and treatments, and leading to cost savings for both patients and healthcare providers.

Furthermore, emerging digital solutions can help ensure early diagnostics and timely treatment initiation for chronic conditions. For example, the LASI reported that 21.5% of the elderly have undiagnosed hypertension. In this context, point-of-care diagnostic tools—such as handheld devices that can measure blood pressure, blood sugar, and oxygen levels—are making healthcare more efficient, but their adoption needs to be expanded. This advancement can lessen the elderly population’s dependence on pathology labs and diagnostic centres, which often charge high fees, and lead to decreased demand and delays in treatment.

Quality

The creation of EHRs holds greater significance for the elderly population who suffer from multiple chronic conditions. As per the LASI, cardiovascular diseases (35.6%), hypertension (32%) and diabetes mellitus (13.2%) are the most prevalent NCDs in India’s elderly. Nearly a quarter of India’s elderly have multiple chronic conditions. As a consequence, they consume multiple medicines and drugs, called “polypharmacy”. Accurate and updated EHRs can enable the seamless sharing of information across healthcare providers, ensuring that patients’ treatment plans are aligned with existing treatments and medications, avoiding medical errors and wastage of resources, and reducing redundancy due to fragmented information sources.

Mobile health applications have also gained momentum in recent times, used often to track physical activities, set reminders and alerts for medicines, assistance with nutritional and dietary intakes, amongst other features. For elderly individuals who live alone or experience memory issues, these apps can be very beneficial. They act as personal health assistants, providing reminders to take medications, attend virtual doctor appointments, or follow prescribed health regimens. Some apps even connect directly to wearable devices, allowing users to monitor their health in real time and share updates with healthcare providers.

The advantages of digital health technologies have become increasingly apparent, aiding not only the elderly but people of all ages. However, to boost its acceptance across healthcare users and providers, coordinated efforts are required. It is of utmost importance to ensure strict implementation of data privacy laws and regulations to adequately protect citizens’ health data.

Keeping in mind the lower levels of digital literacy among certain population groups, it’s important to make health applications more user-friendly and simplistic to ensure easy accessibility. The LASI discovered that many elderly citizens are unaware of welfare schemes, which prevents them from accessing its benefits. Digital applications can help by providing information on these schemes and how to access them.

Abha Jaiswal and Palak Chakraborty work for the Sankala Foundation, New Delhi.